Happy ending
by Ultimate Queen of Cliffies
Summary: No hope, no love, no glory... no happy ending. Oneshot. Post-musical. Very, very sad Fiyeraba fluff. Warning: major character death.


**AN: This is going to be a long AN. You can skip it if you want to, but something happened today and I just need to write it down.**

**I went to go shopping with my Aunt today, a late birthday present. The short version is that we saw a woman on a bicycle driving next to a truck when we were searching for a parking spot. When we came back there by foot to go to the mall, we saw an ambulance. Then we saw a young woman trying to revive someone, and that someone turned out to be the woman we'd seen earlier. **

**We're not sure what happened, exactly, or if the truck hit her or not, but something caused her to fall. The truck driver was sitting across the street, crying, totally in shock, and the ambulance personnel examined the woman - I couldn't see her face, but there was a lot of blood near her head. A few moments later they covered her with a sheet.**

**It was just a really, really awful thing to see. The blood, and the girl trying to revive her - the girl was, of course, really upset as well - and the truck driver crying, and then the ambulance personnel covering her with that sheet... I read later that apparently it had taken the ambulance twenty minutes to get there, and I just started wondering all kinds of things. Had the woman died right away? Did that girl spend twenty minutes trying to revive her? I don't know - I just can't stop thinking about it.**

**Anyway, like I said, sorry for the long rant, but I just needed to get that out...**

**About the oneshot, it came to me before I went shopping this morning, so _before _I was in a sad mood, which I now find kind of striking. It's probably the saddest thing I've ever written. Please let me know what you think.**

* * *

"Yero?" The voice coming from the bed sounded weak, yet faintly amused. "Would you stop fussing? We both know it's not going to be of any use."

He immediately put down everything he was holding – a cup of tea, a blanket, and a hot water pitcher - and shot to her side faster than she could blink. She was looking up at him, and he felt a pang upon realising how pale her face was, how sick she looked. Her eyes, however, were still the same. Large and sparkling and chocolate brown and soft upon seeing the look on his face.

"Don't say that," he begged her. He climbed onto the bed with her and lay beside her, pulling her to lie with her back against his chest. She closed her eyes for a moment.

"You knew this would happen," she said softly. "We both know that spending years on the run, sleeping on icy cold forest floors, didn't exactly do wonders for my health."

"I know," he choked out. "I just wish…"

Her hand found his and she laced their fingers together. "More time?" she asked softly, and she felt him nod, something warm and wet dripping down into her neck.

She shook her head. "I've lasted longer than any of the doctors predicted," she reminded him, which was true. When she had started experiencing lung problems, quite some years ago, Fiyero had dragged her to at least five different doctors all over Quox, all of whom had told them the same thing: it was incurable, it would only get worse, and she would have at most five years left to live.

Yet here they were, twelve years later, and he was so grateful for the extra time that had been given to them. But still it hadn't been long enough. He couldn't let her go.

They stayed silent for a while. He could hear her wheezing with every inhalation, struggling for every breath, and he wished there was something he could do to help her.

He wished for so many things.

She turned around in his arms after a while, facing him. She reached up to wipe the tears from his cheeks and began softly, "Yero…"

"Don't," he begged her, his voice breaking. "Please don't. Don't give me a long goodbye speech, Fae. I couldn't bear that."

A ghost of a smile lit up her face for a moment. "I won't," she whispered, leaning her head against his shoulder. "There's nothing I could say now that I haven't told you many times before, anyway."

He buried his face in her neck and she started running her fingers through his hair, cradling him against her. "Just remember that I love you," she whispered. "Always and forever."

A sob racked his body, but he managed to choke out, "I love you, too, Fae. Always and forever," he added in a whisper, and she kissed him softly.

He pulled her close and closed his eyes, trying to remember the way she felt in his arms, the taste of her lips, the scent of her hair, but he knew he wouldn't be able to hold on to it. Sooner or later, the memories would fade. He would grow older. He would have to go on… but how could he go on without her?

"You have to," she whispered, as if she had read his mind. "You have to go on, Yero. Promise me. Promise me that you won't give up because I'm gone."

"Why?" he croaked. "What do I still have to live for when you're not here?"

Tears filled her eyes, and she kissed him again. "Just try," she whispered. "Promise me at least you'll try."

He could see that she needed this, so he closed his eyes and promised her that he'd try, despite the fact that the mere prospect of living so much as a day without her felt like his heart was being ripped from his chest.

She closed her eyes, too, and nuzzled his cheek. "Thank you," she murmured. She looked up at him again. "No regrets?" she whispered.

"Just one," he whispered back, and he felt her tense for a moment. He kissed her hair. "Not kissing you that day with the Lion Cub," he mumbled against her hair. "Perhaps if I had, we would have had more time together."

She shook her head. "I don't think so," she said, her voice hoarse. "I think… I think it was too soon, back then. I wasn't ready. And… and we both know that I would have defied the Wizard, no matter what."

He nodded slowly. "I guess you're right," he muttered, and he kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks, her nose, her lips. "Then no. No regrets. None at all."

She smiled faintly, eyes closed once again. "Me, neither."

They lay in silence for a few everlasting moments, and he found himself wishing he could freeze this moment and live in it forever. If he could only spend the rest of his life in this bed, with his as of yet still breathing wife in his arms, he would die a happy man.

"I wish this could last forever," he voiced his thoughts, his voice sounding strangled.

She kissed his fingers, one by one. "Just for this moment," she whispered. "As long as you're mine…"

"And if it turns out…" He closed his eyes and another sob escaped his lips. "It's over too fast…"

"We'll make every last moment last," she whispered, and for some reason, he found that comforting. He tightened his grip on her. "As long as you're mine…"

"I'm yours," she murmured. "Wherever I am, whether I'm here or not, that will never change."

He cried, burying his face in her midnight black hair. "I love you so much…"

"I love you, too, Yero my hero," she whispered, feeling dizzy now because of the lack of oxygen in her blood. She knew she didn't have much time left. Every breath was more shallow and more of a struggle than the last, but she didn't say anything. They both knew it.

"Kiss me," she whispered, and he did. It seemed to last forever and they both knew it would be their last.

He looked into those beautiful chocolate brown eyes once more, gently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Then she turned her back towards him again and he pulled her as close as she could possibly get, her back against his chest, their legs entwined, and his face buried in her neck. He could feel the soft, but rapid rise and fall of her chest as he draped his arm over it, he felt her heart beating against his own chest. He closed his eyes and started counting.

After twenty-four breaths and sixty-seven heartbeats, she was gone.


End file.
